Impact of Trained versus Spontaneous Reciprocal Peer Tutoring on Adolescent Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two different forms of reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) on the motor and cognitive performance of adolescents in a physical education setting. We also explored the influence of gender. We assigned 72 ninth-graders (36 M, 36 F), all novices in a table tennis task, to a 2 × 3 (Gender × Learning Condition: physical practice with trained RPT [TRPT] vs. physical practice with spontaneous RPT [SRPT]vs. physical practice without any form of RPT [PP; individual control condition]) factorial design. Results indicated superior motor performance and cognitive skills for the TRPT condition and no difference between the SRPT and PP conditions. The peer-tutor training was thus a crucial organizational variable of the success of RPT. Interestingly, our results support the assumption that females particularly benefit from a highly structured peer tutoring framework.

Acknowledgments

The authors express sincere appreciation to two anonymous reviewers for insightful feedback on an earlier version of the article. They also thank Alain Coupet for his relevant advice on table tennis issues and Léo Gerville-Réache for his help with the statistics. Finally, the authors are grateful to the principal, teachers, and students of the participating school.